MOBY DICK’D

‘It Was Completely Black’: MA Lobster Diver Survives Being Swallowed by Whale

He said all he could think about were his two teenage boys.

When one goes lobster diving, they usually expect to see lobsters—not be swallowed by a humpback whale. Such circumstances befell Michael Packard, a Massachusetts diver who was swallowed whole on Friday during his second dive of the day. “I was completely inside [the whale]; it was completely black,” he told the Cape Cod Times. “I thought to myself, ‘There’s no way I’m getting out of here. I’m done, I’m dead. All I could think of was my boys, they’re 12 and 15 years old.” He thought he was inside a great white shark, but when he didn't feel any teeth, he figured it was something else. He then noticed the whale begin to rock its head to each side, seemingly uninterested in its human dinner. Within 30 to 40 seconds, Packard estimates, the whale surfaced and spat him out in front of an incredulous crewman. He suffered minor soft tissue damage. An expert told the outlet that the whale was likely a calf who made a mistake, as whales aren’t usually aggressive toward humans.